WCP2850

Letter (WCP2850.2740)

[1]

The Camp,

Sunningdale.

May 17 1906

My dear Wallace

Only a few weeks ago I was in correspondence with Mr Massie[?]1 on the subject of your letter — to no end.

There are in the volumes of my father's2 correspondence at Kew some 90 letters from Spruce;3 & there must be in Bentham's4 correspondence, which I gave to Kew, a good many.

There are published in my father's "Kew Garden Miscellany" some 25 entries, copies of letters & information &c regarding Spruces' [sic] S. American travels.

From having myself read so many of his letters I can safely say [2] that they are of extraordinary interest & value, & that his unpublished material should be out of sight is unjust to his labour & memory & a loss to science.

I cannot doubt that such a work as you outline would readily meet with a publisher, your name alone would settle that point; and if you think my word with Murray5 Macmillan6 or Reeve7 would be worth consideration you have only to command it.

The task of editing would be heavy, & perhaps expensive, if, as I suppose, the rules of the Herbarium Library at Kew would not permit of the loan of the letters. Prain8 the new Director, would I am sure do all he could [3] to help you. Massie[?] is I know interested, & he is on the spot.

Ever yours |.Jos[eph] D. Hooker [signature]

Massie[?]
Hooker, Sir William Jackson (1785-1865). English botanist.
Spruce, Richard (1817-1893). English botanist and explorer.
Bentham, George (1800-1884). English botanist and president of the Linnean Society from 1861 to 1874.
Murray, publishing company founded in London by John Murray in 1768.
Macmillan, publishing company founded in 1843 by brothers Daniel and Alexander Macmillan.
Reeve, Lovell Augustus (1814-1865). English publisher and conchologist.
Prain, David (1857-1944). Scottish physician and botanist.

Please cite as “WCP2850,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2850